Apparatus for treating gases with liquids



1954 D. B. FOSTER ETAL 2,665,123

' APPARATUS FOR TREATING GASES WITH LIQUIDS Filed May 22, 1950 INVQ S Did-$115,,

F M41344 M Mvwau Patented Jan. 5, 1954 TENT tries APPARATUS FOR TREATING GASES WITH LIQUIDS David Blythe Foster, London,

and William ,Stephens Norman, Hoole, Chester, England, as-

signors to C. D. Patents Limited, London, Eng' land, a British company Application May 22, 1950, Serial No. 163,432

Claims priority, application Great Britain May 26, 1949 41: Claims. 1

This invention relates to improvements in apparatus for treating gases or vapours with liquids as in scrubbing towers, cooling towers and the like. It is known that many industrial gases or vapours which call for scrubbing treatment contain corrosive ingredients and likewise the l quids employed may contain or acquire corrosive ingredients. It has been customary to use for such towers a packing made of earthenware or of wood or metal; metallurgical coke has also been used as a packing. None of these materials is ideal for the purpose: metallurgical coke is neither efficient or uniform: earthenware (rings for example) also gives irregular results and both those well-known forms of packing are apt to give excessive resistance to the flow of gas or vapour. Wood and metal lend themselves to the production of lattice work which is advantageous but metal corrodes and wood is inclined to perish.

According to this invention in apparatus for treating gases or vapours with liquids (particularly with liquid films flowing over solid surfaces) a packing is used composed of grids or lattices of hard, wettable carbon.

The carbon may be moulded in strip form, fired to produce a strong and durable material and thereafter cut and assembled into the desired grids or lattices.

Thus finely comminuted carbonaceous material such as coal with added plasticising agents such as pitch or tar and/or naphthalene oil (in the form of a paste) may be extruded into a tape of substantially rectangular section and fired to produce the strong and durable carbon and the strip can be sawn or cut and slotted to enable grids or lattices to be built up.

Slight departures from a rectangular section e. g. a double concave section may have advantages such as increasing the contact area.

The extruded section may have fine ribs grooves lying in a direction normal to the directions of liquidand gaseous flow to increase the friction between the liquid and the carbon and to promote the wetting of the carbon by the liquid.

One process for making the carbon strip suitable for the grids or lattices is that described in United States Patent No. 2,637,072, issued May 5, 1953, to Charles D. Greaves and William D. Parker, and assigned to the owner of the present application. 1

Practical applications of this invention will be appreciated from the following description of examples reference being made to the accompanying drawings in which;

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a scrubbing tower part of the casing being broken away to show the disposition of the carbon grids;

Figure 2 is a side elevation and transverse sec tion of one form of carbon grid; and

Figure 3 is a side elevation and transverse section of another form of carbon grid.

Referring to Figure 1 a casing for an upright scrubbing tower is built up of sections in the form of hollow rectangular prisms l2 having horizontal flanges 13 secured (e. g. welded) to their joining edges, the contiguous flanges being bolted together as indicated at it. Near the bottom of the tower is inlet (e. g. an inlet for a gas to be scrubbed) and the tower is also provided with any other necessary inlets and outlets (not shown). Thus in well-known manner the top of the tower may have a liquid distributor which supplies thin films of liquid substantially uni.- formly over the surfaces of the uppermost grids or lattices.

The filling of the tower consists of horizontal grids or lattices it of hard, wettable carbon and the individual elements of each grid or lattice are supported at their ends on horizontal bars ll of hard carbon, and said bars I! are spaced apart by simple distance pieces which are also of hard carbon.

The individual elements It of the grids or 1attices may be made from moulded or extruded strip or may be moulded to the desired form and dimensions but in each case the moulded strip or element is fired as described in the prior spccifi cation above referred to, to produce the hard, wettable carbon over which the liquid films will flow evenly.

Referring to Figure 2 the individual elements it (which may be made from extruded strip) are of double concave section.

Referring to Figure 3 the individual elements !9 have fine ribs or grooves 28 lying in a direction normal to the directions of liquid and gaseous flow to increase the friction between the liquid and the carbon and to promote the wetting of the carbon by the liquid.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for treating gases or vapours with liquid films flowing over solid surfaces, which apparatus comprises a vertical container and a plurality of horizontal grids spaced above one another in said container, each grid comprising a plurality of spaced, parallel strips of hard, wettable carbon, each of which strips has wide upright sides and has its lower edge serrated to provide downwardly projecting points, the strips 3 of adjacent grids being disposed at right angles to one another and each downwardly projecting point being arranged va short .distance directly above a st'r'ip' in tli'ea grid next below-'- 2. Apparatus for treating gases or vapours with liquid films flowing over solid surfaces,

which apparatus comprises a vertical container,

a plurality of horizontal grids disposed one above' another in said container, each grid comprising? a plurality of parallel strips of hard, wettable 10 carbon, each of which strips'ha's'wvid-uprighti sides, has its lower edge serrated itdmrovide'lc downwardly projecting points and has its ends slotted, and horizontal bars of hard carbon accommodated in said slotted ends thereby'spacing #15 said strips apart, the strips of eachgrid extend ing in a direction at right angles to" tli strips -of.-;

each adjacent grid, and hard carbon distance pieces spacing said grids above one anotherg each downwardly projecting point being disposed di- 20 rectly-above and out-. or; contact-withz'the upper edge of a strip -,of: thegrid next below 3. Apparatus as cIaimcdeinMcIaimHI inuwhicha the upright sides of each strip are smooth and uninterrupted and are concave, whereby the cross-section vofaeach stripis ofudouble concave formicv Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which each strip is of narrow rectangular cross-section and the upright sides of each strip are provided withnna horizontal" grooves.

DAVID BLYTHE FOSTER. W]LLIAM. STEPHENS NORMAN.

Riifi-encest citedfin the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Numbex Name Date 436,414 Graham Sept. 16, 1890 888,120 Shertenberg May 19, 1908 2,294,973 Ford Sept. 8, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 286,269 G featmfitain nnn Fb."27-,'19'28 4965051 Gf66WBfitaIi-1 Not/P21393 8 

